KARACHI: Digital payments in Pakistan is continuously rising with increasing penetration of mobile phones and internet, according to central bank of Pakistan, the mobile phone banking and internet banking increased by 141.1% and 81.1% respectively during the fiscal year FY22.

In its Annual Payment Systems Report for the fiscal year 2021-22, the central bank presents major developments in the payments eco-system of the country, accompanied by an overall summary of transactions. 

The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) said continued efforts to promote and enhance digital payments system in Pakistan, including the launch of the Raast Person-to-Person (P2P), enabled payments among individuals, businesses and other entities to settle transactions in real time.  

Pakistan’s central bank had launched Raast, the country’s first instant payment system, in January last year. The central bank reported that the number of mobile phone and internet banking users reached 8.4 million and 12.3 million, respectively, during FY22.  

“In terms of transactions, mobile phone banking increased by 100.4% to 387.5 million, while internet banking grew by 51.7% to 141.7 million during the year,” the central bank said.  

By value, mobile phone banking and internet banking growth was recorded at 141.1% and 81.1% respectively, thus reaching Rs11.9 trillion and Rs10.2 trillion respectively.  

E-commerce transactions also witnessed similar trends as the volume grew by 107.4% to 45.5 million and the value by 74.9% to Rs106. million, according to the SBP.  

According to the report, as of June 2022, the number of registered P2P Raast users were 15 million, who carried out 7.9 million transactions amounting to Rs102.1 billion in value.    

During FY22, a total of 32,958 point of sales (POS) machines were deployed in the country, which led to an expansion of its network by 45.8% to 104,865.  

E-commerce merchants registered with banks increased to 4,887 from 3,003 merchants during this period. The ATM network in the country also grew by 4.8% during the year reaching to 17,133 ATMs, according to the report.  

The total number of transactions through POS, 137.5 million, was 54.5% higher than previous fiscal year with the transaction value reaching Rs0.7 trillion registering a growth of 56.1%.  

A total of 692.3 million transactions were carried out through ATMs which amounted to Rs9.6 trillion, 19.2% higher than FY21.  

There were 42.4 million payment cards in circulation in FY22 including 71.1% or 30.16 million debit cards; 24.3% or 10.3 million social welfare cards; 4.2% or 1.79 million credit cards and the rest were pre-paid and ATM only cards. 

The number of large-value transactions through Real-Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) system of Pakistan reached 4.37 million by FY22, amounting to Rs681.6 trillion with an annual growth of 53.3% in value.  

Pakistan’s central bank has been taking steps to discourage cash-based transactions but the report shows that it only declined by 1% in volume. However, the value grew to Rs190.4 trillion, almost 25.6% higher than last year.